Here
you will find new and existing links with useful information about ARES
and the ARRL, with information on how amateur radio operators can
register in ARES, or how to contact the amateur radio service that
provides free emergency communication support for many served agencies
throughout the state of Illinois.

Learn more about Amateur Radio
Emerancy Service ARES! Watch this Video!

Video on Amateur Radio Emergency
Services for Katrina

What do Amateur Radio operators
do during and after disasters?

Amateur Radio operators set up
and operate organized communication
networkslocally
for governmental and emergency officials, as well as non-commercial
communication for private citizens affected by the disaster. Amateur
Radio operators are most likely to be active after disasters that
damage regular lines of communications due to power outages and
destruction of telephone, cellular and other infrastructure-dependent
systems.

How do Amateur Radio operators
help local officials?

Many
radio amateurs are active as communications volunteers with local
public safety organizations. In addition, in some disasters, radio
frequencies are not coordinated among relief officials and Amateur
Radio operators step in to coordinate communication when radio towers
and other elements in the communications infrastructure are damaged.

Emergency
Communications Training — What Is It and Why Should I Take It?

Emergency
Communications, training consists of a series of courses
designed for amateur communicators. After successful completion of
these courses, the participant can be credentialed in Amateur Radio
emergency communications. Credentialing is a process used to
demonstrate education, basic knowledge, understanding and skill in a
subject area.

With the exception of those
amateurs registered with RACES organizations or served
agencies such as the Red
Cross,
amateur emergency communicators have not been expected to have formal
training (Red Cross communications training usually dealt with the use
of their message forms). Many amateurs thought that the basic skills
they learned through everyday communications, contesting and public
service events
included everything they needed to be an effective emergency
communicator. This may have been the case in the past, but it left a
very poor image of Amateur Radio with our served agencies.

Amateur
Does Not Mean “Not an Expert”

The
world
expects those who present themselves as an expert or capable of doing a
certain job task to be competent in that task. For instance, if a
volunteer fireman comes to your aid, you would expect that person to be
knowledgeable in fire fighting and rescue skills and able to safely use
his equipment. The firefighter must participate in training and
practice to be able to do the job and be able to show proof of that
training. We hold our volunteer firefighters to a high standard. Why
should we not also expect our volunteer emergency communicators to meet
designated standards?

Agencies
that use the services of our volunteer communicators expect them to
meet certain standards and be able to show proof of training. By using
credentialed volunteers, the served agency has more confidence in, and
higher expectations of, the service being provided. In this day and
time, it is just no longer acceptable to do otherwise.

We
All Benefit from Training

What
are the
benefits to all this effort? The benefits to the individual amateur may
not seem to be very significant, especially given all the work and
effort (not to mention testing jitters and expense). There are many
community benefits. First, your community will have trained and
credentialed volunteer emergency communicators. During a disaster,
communications blackout or public service event, these are the people
your community can count on for help. Our Federal, state and local
governments also benefit by having access to a pool of trained,
credentialed and ready volunteers to provide communications in case of
disasters like hurricane
Katrina.

“But
wait,” you say. “The government has RACES that
fills this
role.” It is true that RACES fills the local
government’s
emergency communications needs in many local areas. This has worked
very well in the past, and can continue to do so in the future.
Amateurs registered with a RACES sponsoring organization usually get
training specified by their RACES sponsor. One drawback, however, is
that RACES groups are limited to their sponsoring
organization’s
geographic area and responsibility, usually that of a local
government’s emergency management agency. By making emergency
communications training available to any interested amateur operator,
the pool of available emergency responders becomes much larger.

In
addition, a nationwide organization such as ARES
is not restricted to a local area. These volunteers have the freedom to
go wherever needed, while maintaining their organized structure. By
having a set of nationally standardized basic training requirements,
served agencies, as well as local, state and federal authorities can be
assured of having access to qualified amateur operators during an
emergency. These are operators who have demonstrated that they have met
certain basic qualifications and can fit into emergency operations
wherever needed.

The
individual amateur operator benefits by gaining additional knowledge
and training from the courses taken and the additional experience
gained. There is the added benefit of self-satisfaction of having
completed the training and obtaining the certification certificates.
Additional opportunities open up for these amateur operators through
assisting other hams with training and testing exams.

What
Training Is Available?

How
do you go about getting this training? There are several ways to obtain
the certification for the three levels of the ARRL Emergency
Communications Courses.
First, and often the most criticized for various reasons, is the online
course. This method, while usually thought of as the most expensive way
to complete the training, ensures an excellent educational experience.
One alternative is traditional classroom training with a
“traditional” test. Another is a hybrid course that
is
composed of classroom training and online testing. The least expensive
might be self-study and then taking the certification exam at a
traditional testing session.

Online
courses and testing are a bit expensive for the average volunteer. The Connecticut
Distance Learning Consortium
offers these online courses and testing. The CDLC uses volunteer
instructors (mentors) to keep the costs as low as possible, but still
there are expenses that have to be covered. If you are a person who can
complete a self-study course on your own, then do so, but for those who
need interaction with other students, an instructor or mentor, then one
of the other training methods might be more appropriate.

Other
required courses can include FEMA
training.
The Federal government frequently imposes various requirements upon the
State governments. By doing so, they receive federal funds. In order to
promote standardized training of emergency responders, including
amateur operators, the Federal government imposed a training
requirement upon the States; this must be included in their emergency
management plans. This requirement calls for all emergency responders
to be familiar with the basic concepts of the Federal disaster response
plan, as well as training in other areas that the responder would be
responsible for.

This is where the FEMA IS-100, IS-700 and IS-800
courses, as well as the EmComm courses come into play. Various courses
are required, depending on the level of participation in the disaster
management program. For instance, basic responders may only be expected
to complete the IS-700 course and Level 1 of the communications course.
The county Emergency Coordinator and higher officials might be required
to take all three levels of the emergency communications courses and
additional FEMA courses.

In order to fulfill our full
potential, we
as Amateur Radio operators must get prepared, stay prepared and project
a trustworthy image to the public, government agencies and the various
served agencies. Being “officially” trained and
credentialed is a significant part of these preparations. It is also
important to register your credentials with your local emergency
communications group so that the information will be readily available
for an immediate response. You should participate to whatever extent
you can in your local
emergency communications group, applying the concepts learned
in the various courses.

It is not expected that those
without
credentials would be excluded from the disaster response, but it is
almost a certainty that without credentials you will not get the best
assignments.

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